ABG Seminar: Can South Sudan Escape the Resource Curse?

THIS EVENT IS ARCHIVED

Emma Vickers & Annie Dunnebacke (Global Witness)

Date:27 January 2014Time: 1:00 PM

Finishes:27 January 2014Time: 3:00 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College BuildingsRoom: 116

Type of Event: Seminar

Resource rich countries in Africa seem destined to suffer from corruption, conflict and instability. Global Witness works to prevent resource wealth becoming curse, conducting investigations into allegations of corruption and lobbying for global policy change to ensure that some of the world’s poorest people benefit from the natural resources they rightfully own. South Sudan is the world’s newest country, and its most oil-dependent. With 98% of state income drawn from oil, getting resource management right from the word go is essential. What progress has South Sudan made towards building an oil industry that benefits its people? What challenges still remain? How can the international community contribute? Global Witness’ experience here since independence offers some answers, but also begs more questions on the possibility of responsible extraction in Africa.

Annie Dunnebacke - Deputy Campaigns Director, Conflict Resources

Annie Dunnebacke leads Global Witness’s Conflict Resources team, managing campaigns covering oil governance in South Sudan, the trade in conflict minerals in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe’s diamond sector. Annie coordinated the organisation’s work on conflict diamonds and the Kimberley Process for four years and more recently led the conflict minerals campaign, carrying out frequent field investigations in the Great Lakes region and other parts of Africa. Before joining Global Witness, Annie worked for non-governmental organisations in Central Africa, Croatia, the UK and Canada on a range of issues including arms control and human security, children and women’s rights, and human rights education. She holds an MA in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding from the University of Leuven.

Emma Vickers - Lead Campaigner, Sudan and South Sudan

Emma Vickers leads Global Witness’s work on Sudan and South Sudan, campaigning for transparent and accountable oil sector governance, and for oil wealth to be a driver for peace and development, rather than a cause for conflict. Previously, Emma worked on Global Witness’s oil campaign, focussing on corruption in the Nigerian oil sector and, prior to joining Global Witness, Emma worked for a child rights organisation in Uganda. She holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, specialising in the political economy of corruption in the Angolan oil sector.

Chair: Dr Jonathan Di John, SOAS

Jonathan Di John’s main areas of expertise are development economics, institutional economics and the political economy of growth and development in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, Brazil, and Colombia. His research interests focus on political economy, especially concerning industrial strategy, taxation and tax reform, corruption, privatisation, oil economies, and conflict and war in mineral abundant economies. He was also a principal researcher at the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics. He has done consultancy work for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).